Peak Rockstar Games Era

[Emmi]

What is in your opinion the era where Rockstar Games' was operating at its very peak.

[Blue carpet]

For me it's the the 7th gen don't get me wrong I love 6th gen Rockstar it's what made them a household name, but I prefer the gameplay and graphics of the HD era over the 3D GTA's also I'm a big fan of L.A. Noire and Max Payne 3.

Edited February 26 by Blue carpet

[Spider-Vice]

That's some very weird and I suspect biased grouping. GTA Online is a game of its own these days, and is ignored whilst it is a huge part of current-era Rockstar, and for some reason it seems to ignore how big even the GTA V story mode was on PS4 and Xbox One, just listing LA Noire's remaster, RDR2 and then the GTA Trilogy DE which was an one-off.

 

I understand that those seem to be listed in original release order, but then following your logic, the GTA Trilogy DE should be in the PS5-Xbox Series era.

 

A very hard vote this way, but I'm going with Gen8 because of current-era GTA Online and RDR2. Would also vote for Gen9 if that was a multi-choice poll. Previous generations had hit games, but a lot of the love is nostalgia-fuelled, some of the games didn't age that well in reality.  I suspect a lot of people will be voting Gen7 simply because they released more games (although EFLC was just GTA IV expansions) and that generation was long.

[universetwisters]

PS2 era without a doubt. Rockstar was still "underground" and the "cool" game company relative to nintendo and folks who still thought video games were just toys for kids

[Emmi]

I simply forgot about GTA Online and I won't add it now since I hate this sh*t and in my opinion isn't good for Rockstar's game catalogue.

[Space Cowboy]

Rockstar games eras have essentially just become single game eras at this point (not counting remasters, re-releases), so even if my favourite Rockstar game would be RDR2, it makes it really hard to vote for PS4 gen since the previous 2 gens, especially PS2 gen, had so many quality titles released over their lifespan. Yeah, perhaps PS2 era games did not age that well, but that doesn't make the time when Rockstar released quality titles in quick succession any less amazing. When you were a fan of Rockstar games from let's say GTA III onwards, you had a time of your life in PS2 era and to an extent in PS3 era as well, although the momentum has noticeably slowed down at that point. PS4 era has changed everything, and it's never going to come even close to how it was before.

[44Orca]

Really loved the PS2 era, that's the one for me, mainly because of GTA San Andreas and Midnight Club 2, I put so many hours in those two, they did way too much with them especially San Andreas. Then you also have GTA III and Vice City which I played same year.

 

You also have Max Payne, Bully and Manhunt which I don't have as many hours but were also very unique. 

 

It might depend when people started playing them, it was that time I did, so the nostalgia part might also play there as to where I think Rockstar Games was at its best.

The company is still great with what they release but game development is more complex now than back then.

Edited February 27 by 44Orca

[The Tracker]

7th generation era, definitely, but without the GTA V part. 

[Drimes]

It was in its prime up untill 2013

[Algonquin Assassin]

It was a toss up between 6th and 7th gen, but went with 7th gen because GTA IV obviously.

 

But in all seriousness I really think this was peak R* before things turned to sh*t creatively speaking. It sucks that there’s only been ONE new game besides GTA V that’s been released in the last 10 years and as great as RDR2 is it’s not enough to sustain an entire era. Sorry (at-least to me).

 

When I look at those games it makes me sad how out of touch R* have been in the last decade or so. They were still willing to give other franchises a go and hell even something completely niche like Table Tennis was cool.

 

Not a big seller of course, but hey it was different. I’d love to see R* do quirky side projects like that again, but it’s unfortunately a thing of the past.

Edited March 7 by Algonquin Assassin

[Banana]

I'd put GTA5 in the PS4 era considering it released basically 1 year before PS4/XB1 and has gotten most of it's online content during those years.

 

Also GTA6, really?

[wise_man]

The PS3 era. As cool and nostalgic it was the PS2 times, the era between GTA IV and GTA V was Rockstar's prime. They had grown more experienced and maximized all technologies and efforts for their games. And just look at the lineup: GTA IV, EFLC, Max Payne 3, LA Noire, and the og GTA V. 

[Korpi]

It's a mixture of both PS2 and PS3-eras, most definitely. 

[eduazy]

Rockstar as a company - PS2, Xbox era

Production value of their games - PS3, 360 era

 

Peak R* was when they made a bunch of contests, interacted with fans, tried new things, created media content outside games - so 2001-2010 era

[Anonymous017]

Ps2 era in my view